Shuttles for embroidery and quilting machines, used all over the world today, are preferably made of steel and only approximately 10% of plastic. The average age of a shuttle is 12 to 15 years. But shuttles which have been used for 30 or more years are not uncommon. As a result, shuttles of various ages are used in an embroidery machine, which have certain differences with respect to the mass at the shuttle hole and of the cover, or where the cover itself has been changed. For this reason all efforts to automate the emptying, cleaning, re-filling and setting if the thread tension of current shuttles have failed. Although attempts have been made within the past ten years to change certain operations of these steps into separate automated operations, such attempts have been only moderately successful. All shuttles need to be identical for automation and they must be newly designed for handling by machine.